Israel's New Ambassador Being Tested

Published 6:00 pm, Monday, November 11, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Israel's recently appointed ambassador to the United States mastered the art of diplomacy long ago, marrying an American woman from Ohio and adopting children from Panama and Russia.

Already, after only a few months on the job, Danny Ayalon's diplomatic skills are being tested as the potential for war between the United States and Iraq appears to be growing. Israel has been building its defenses against possible Iraqi missiles but is not committed to honor U.S. wishes by not retaliating if Iraq should fire missiles as it did in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

"Israel and the U.S. are best of friends, best of allies," Ayalon said in his first joint interview with his wife of nearly 23 years. "So our personal lives, I would say, exemplify my work, which is to bring together us and America and strengthen ties. It starts with me at home, and I am very proud of that."

Ayalon, 46, met his wife, Anne, in the late 1970s while she was an exchange student in Tel Aviv. Ayalon was a college student working security at the Hilton Hotel when he noticed a tall blond woman in line at the hotel cafeteria.

"She was ahead of me, and she was American, so I asked, `How are the relations between Israel and the U.S. today?'" he recalled. "After that, we went on this date. And ever since, we were together."

Mrs. Ayalon, 46, nods. "He was a special guy," she said. "I knew it right away."

Ayalon was foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he started his current job in Washington in late July. It's his first diplomatic post and comes at a challenging time.

The United States has warned that it's ready to use military force in Iraq should Saddam Hussein refuse to agree to renewed U.N. arms inspections and cooperate with the inspectors. Ayalon has said his country doesn't want to get involved in an operation against Iraq, but it might be forced to retaliate if Iraq strikes Israel in response to an American attack.

In the early 1980s, at a time when Israel was involved with Palestinian guerrillas in Lebanon, Ayalon and his wife were at Bowling Green State University in Ohio earning their master's degrees in business administration. The couple traveled to cities across northern Ohio, giving speeches to explain the Israeli position to Americans.

"I found it very appealing," Ayalon said. "This is where I first developed the idea of a potentially different career."

After graduating in 1983, the couple moved back to Tel Aviv. Ayalon went to work in business administration, and wife became an executive with a Tel Aviv communications technology company.

Ayalon had not lost his interest in diplomacy, so five years later he got a job at the Israeli Embassy in Panama, where the couple adopted a daughter, now 10. They adopted their second daughter, now 4, from Russia.

Ayalon's next assignment was New York City, where he was part of the delegation to the United Nations. In 1997, he became deputy foreign policy adviser to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and stayed in that job for Netanyahu's successor, Ehud Barak, when he took over in 1999.

He was Sharon's top foreign policy adviser before replacing David Ivry as ambassador to Washington in April.

"In many ways, I see my job here as a continuation of my old job, but from a relocation perspective," Ayalon said. He still advises on foreign policy from his office in Washington.

The ambassadorship also continues what drew Ayalon to foreign policy: public speaking. The Ayalons again are traveling together to speak to groups. Mrs. Ayalon calls herself the ambassador's toughest critic but a loving coach.

She grew up the fourth of five children in Archbold, Ohio, about 150 miles west of Cleveland. She converted from Christianity to Judaism, and the two were wed in a Jewish ceremony in Ohio that included relatives from Israel.

"It was always teamwork. There were times that she traveled a lot. Then I was traveling a lot with the prime minister. But now, we travel together. This is part of the job," Ayalon said.